Classic employment traps – redundancy

It’s amazing how many employers perceive redundancy as something quite separate from dismissal, says one of our employment lawyers.

At a rough estimate, at least 40 per cent of unfair dismissal claims relate in some way to ‘redundancy’ issues – or to be more precise, situations alleged to be redundancy.

The classic scenario runs along the lines of: “One of our salesmen has been causing trouble in the office – I’m going to make him redundant”.

It’s amazing how many employers perceive redundancy as something quite separate from dismissal and regard it a useful solution to people problems.

Redundancy is dismissal. Legally speaking, it is one of the potentially ‘fair’ reasons for dismissal. Strict and relatively complex procedures must be followed so redundancy is by no means a quick fix.

Cloaking what is actually a dismissal under the description of redundancy doesn’t make it so. Neither does it make an employer immune from claims. So if a chap in the pub tells you that one of his salesmen has been causing problems and he is going to make him redundant ….. pass on this bit of good advice before he finds himself having to pay big bucks to the errant salesman in the form of compensation!

As always, if you need commercial and pragmatic legal advice, we’re here to help so please get in touch.

Contact us